


Burn The Worlds to Cinder For You

by Medie



Category: Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Collection: Fandom Stocking 2014, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-13
Updated: 2015-01-13
Packaged: 2018-03-07 09:19:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3169580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Medie/pseuds/Medie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a pity that she likes her farmboys with a few more miles and a lot less complications because Luke Skywalker hasn't enough of the former and way too many of the latter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Burn The Worlds to Cinder For You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kizuzu](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=kizuzu).



> Written for Kizuzu for the 2014 round of Fandom Stocking

Chewie pegs it the second the old man and the kid walk into the cantina and into Han's line of sight. She makes a worried noise in the back of her throat: a low, crooning sound of warning that Han dismisses with a wave of her hand.

Not, coincidentally, the hand holding her blaster.

"Easy, Chewie," she says, her voice a drawl made lazy by the cheap booze, "Just looking is all." She tips her head, following the kid's wide-eyed progress through the cantina. "Can't a girl appreciate the local flavor?"

That gets her a fluting note of disbelief that's familiar. She slants a look over her drink at her Wookie copilot, tipping her mouth into a little smirk. "I promise I'm just looking. I learned my lesson with the last farmboy."

It's a failing, but taking in that pretty, pretty face and those wide blue eyes, Han remembers why it's one of her favorites.

Chewie makes another noise, even less convinced than before, and Han laughs. She's earned that distrust and then some. " _Promise_ ," she says, relaxing into the seat. Finishing off her drink in one swallow, she waves it at Chewie with a little smile. "Besides, the old guy looks more interesting. I'd almost guess he was a man with some place to be and a lot of money to take him there." 

Chewie takes the glass and the hint; threading her way through the crowd with a grace that contradicts her height. Han follows her progress with casual interest, tracking the old man as well. She catches glimpses of her farmboy with his golden hair and curious, curious eyes, letting herself imagine some pleasant possibilities when the old man intercepts Chewie and they start talking in postures that suggest business and good, hard dishonest credits.

It's a pity that she likes her farmboys with a few more miles and a lot less complications because Luke Skywalker hasn't enough of the former and way too many of the latter. 

No one with legitimate business interests picks a pilot in a Mos Eisley cantina. She's expecting trouble long before Chewie brings Luke and Kenobi back to their table. What she isn't expecting, however, is the Empire to come calling and her newfound farmboy to haul her headlong into a revolution.

Complete with renegade Jedi and godsdamn planet-killing _Death Stars_. 

Han remembers reading about the last of the Jedi when she was a kid. The news reports of the successful elimination of the Jedi scourge by the Emperor's loyal stormtroopers. She was still real little in those days, so the memory's a faint one, but she remembers the knot in her belly. The one that came with the understanding something had gone real wrong with the universe that'd never go right again.

The child she was would be excited to see the lightsaber in Luke's hands, thrill at watching Master Yoda drive the kid through the Dagobah swamp, but the woman she's become is just tired.

It's not the first revolution she's seen. It's not even the first one she's seen that the Empire's had trouble quashing, but Kenobi and Yoda both look at the kid with the same hope in their eyes and she hates them for it. 

She felt bad when Kenobi died on the Death Star, she did, but maybe just a little relieved. At least, before he'd gotten it into his head to go searching for Yoda, Han'd been able to entertain the idea that she could talk Luke into joining them. There's a lot of profit to be found for a pilot with his skills and between she and Chewie, they'd be able to fine tune those skills into something beautiful.

Except Luke won't hear of it and then Yoda picks up where Kenobi left off and Han watches her farmboy slowly morph into a soldier. Luke isn't going to be the peaceful, gentle Jedi of old. The genteel knights of the Old Republic that dedicated themselves to rescuing little old ladies and pestering hardworking pirates such as herself.

No, that's not going to be Luke and that's what scares her.

Chewie sits down beside her, fur smelling of engine oil and carbon from hull repairs. She makes a trilling noise and runs a big furry hand over Han's hair. It's godsdamn soothing and Han wants to shoot something. 

"Stop that," she grumbles, kicking at the mud.

Says something that she gets some in her eye for her trouble.

Another noise and Chewie leans into her

"Yeah," Han says, morose, "That's what I'm afraid of." The kid's got martyr written all over him and, damn it, she's probably going to get herself and Chewie killed right along with him.

She's seen Luke almost die enough now that the blind panic is a permanent companion, bitter and ever-present on every breath. There's no way he can train enough, learn enough, that she'll ever lose the feeling and knowing that is a new terror all it's own.

"Remember when this was going to be easy money?" she asks. Just a quick run to make enough cash to pay off Jabba and his cronies before disappearing into some backwater sector and hiding out for a few years.

Just long enough that the merest hint of the Falcon's presence doesn't bring half a dozen bounty hunters down on their heads.

"Mark the day, old buddy," she says, turning her head to smile Chewie's way, "I was wrong. Didn't learn my lesson."

Probably never will.

So why the hell is she so damn happy about it?

Luke's watching her when she looks for him, a smile soft and warm on his face, and Han can't help smiling back.

_Right_


End file.
